emission plate noise

robee

I've heard people use silicon caulk in the grooves of heat emission plates to stop the noise. My question is, with the expansion rate of pex what happens to the silicon over time? Does it continue to hold or does it finally break and the rubbing noise start.

eleft_4

rubbing noise

robee,

I have not had any noise from plates. Where & when do you hear noise. I do not use caulk. I think my question is, what noise?



al

John Felciano

Track

It depends on what kind of track you use.The thin flashing like track should have silicone so the tubing has good contact with the plates.The ticker track holds the tubing tightly and doesn't need the added silicone,some still suggest it,but I find it's not necessary.

Most all of expansion noise comes from the tubing expanding in the track or where it rubs against other tubes or fraiming members.This noise is vertually elimanated with systems that operate on constant circulation with outdoor reset.

The noise accurs when the tubing heats up quickly from say 70* to 140*.As I'm sure your aware pex has a huge expansion rate and when your system goes from cool to hot in a matter of seconds the expansion happens very quickly and you have a noisy system.Outdoor reset happens very slowly the tubing still expands but the slower temperature rise makes it almost unnoticable

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hr

Another trak tip

The thin flashing gauge plates will dig into the subfloor at the corners sometimes. Bending the four corners a tiny bit with a pliers will allow them to expand without digging into the wood.

The ticking noise as John mentioned is from the temperature extremes. The manufactures are clear about proper fastening procedure to help eliminate the "movement" noise, as well as the reset controls.

The heavy alumunum tracks from Radiant Engineering eliminate the silicone and bending issues altogether.

hot rod

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Chris Maderia

The

purpose for silicone on those plates are for heat transfer and nothing else. Just like fin-tube baseboard once you start introducing hot water to a cold very thin flimsy plate you will get noise no matter what you do. I would suggest that you dump those plates and use RTI's extruded plate. Using this plate you get a much easier installation and most importantly low water temps than the plates you are currently using. And you will not get a noise.

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

Silicone

does not transfer heat well; on the contrary, it is an insulator and will reduce the amount of heat transferred from the tubing to the plates.

Radiant Engineeering does not recommend using silicone on their Thermofin plates.

I don't like using silicone on Warmboard even though the manufacturer recommends it.

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hr

I agree Alan

the purpose of the silicone is to "glue" in the pex. Some of the RTI track had loose tolerances and the tube would fall out when the plates warmed and expanded, leaving you with a suspended tube system without suspension:) Hopefully caught before the sheetrock went up. I believe they retooled and handled this.

Same with Warmboard, the tube tends to pop out on the bends if not siliconed or covered right away.

The heavy gauge Radiant Engineerings track doesn't have these problems, very tight fit and firm grip, due in part to the design and heavier gauge aluminum extrusion.

hot rod

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